Mystery on Mars!
by Zylly
Summary: Marissa and the Earthforce travel to Mars to solve a myster as old as time itself...


Though mankind had made it to Mars with the help of the Transformers, they had never done much with it. There were no shining cities or domed civilizations just waiting to break free of the political control of mother Earth. There were no hydroponic gardens teaming with life to replace an oxygen starved planet, and no little green men with curiously roman helmets. It remained a dusty dead world, suited only for an EDC staging base and, a science station that conducted mining operations.

So when during the course of a routine mining operation a derelict spaceship—an honest to God flying saucer—had been discovered, the scientists and EDC officers called in the best analysts Earth could offer them: the Autobots. Unfortunately, whenever a situation called for the Autobots to interact with the EDC or some other human organization, Marissa was required to go along for the ride.

It was not, of course, that she disliked her job. It was a hell of a lot more exciting than the desk job she'd had prior to it; in fact, had she not taken on her role as Earthforce liaison, she'd probably have retired. It was an still an entertaining thought, she could move to some tropical island, sit in the sun, and sip drinks that came in little coconut shells with little umbrellas in them, brought by a bronzed cabana boy…

But no, she enjoyed her job, when Autobots disguised as humans weren't trying to kill her, anyway. What she hated, however, was Mars. She'd hated it when she was stationed on it at a young captain. Nothing had ever happened, and the planet itself was not much to look at either. Just red and rock as far as the eye could see. All she'd done during that time had been to drill and perform maintenance on her ship, hoping for a mission. The rescue of Blurr and Wheelie on Io had changed that, of course, but she'd still hoped to never see the place again.

On the other hand, at least she had a mission to deal with now, even if it almost made her want to laugh. A flying saucer. There was actually a flying saucer sitting in the EDC outpost's hangar. They'd covered such things in an introductory course at the EDC academy; if one was going into space, one needed to learn the history of man's interaction with things from beyond. Granted, flying saucers had been a hoax, or so she'd thought.

Of the Autobots drafted for this mission—Twincast, Bumper, Nightbird, Shooter, and Bullseye—only Twincast and Bumper actually seemed exited to be there. It made sense: Twincast was a scientist, while Bumper was a historian and culture-expert, such a find was right up their alley. Shooter and Bullseye were simply there for security purposes and accepted their assignment with their typical stone-facedness. Nightbird, on the other hand, now sporting an Autobot insignia (Marissa thought it clashed badly with the rest of her coloration but had decided not to say anything) and transforming capabilities, simply hadn't had anything better to do and had tagged along for the experience.

It was a large ship, clearly built for beings the size of Transformers, and a stunningly ugly pea-green in color. All efforts to find a hatch, or even to get a picture of what was inside, had failed. It was though one was expected to simply pass through the hull in order to get inside. Marissa put the hand-held scanner back in its pouch on her belt and looked up at Twincast. "Any ideas?" she asked.

"Nothing concrete yet," Twincast replied. As always, he was somewhat hard to understand, his voice a heavily synthesized thing, much more mechanical than the average Transformer. "I don't want to voice any theories until I have more information." As it was, he placed a hand on the hull and Marissa thought she could hear a faint hum. She realized that Twincast must have been using some sort of low-frequency harmonics to try and get a picture of what was inside the craft.

She turned her attention to Bumper, who was leaning against the near-by wall, data pad in hand, with a cable from the side of his head plugged into it. Though the small Autobot could access any of his stored information easily, and play it across his goggle-like optics, she knew he preferred to have something physical in his hands when he did research, so he usually copied his files into a pad and read them that way.

"Find anything?" she asked.

He shook his head, and started to rub the back of his head sheepishly. Bumper had a bad habit of assuming that if he was unable to find an answer to something, it was somehow his fault. Such humility could be endearing or annoying, depending upon the situation. Currently, Marissa found herself natural on the issue. "It looks similar to several different starships from several million years ago, but doesn't match any of them precisely, or follow the basic standards for each culture's technological evolution. Granted, it could have been created by a maverick member of one of the races I'm looking at here, but…"

Marissa held up a hand to forestall any further sociological babble. "All right, we'll keep searching. If we can actually get inside it, we'll have something better for you to do."

She cast a glance over to where Shooter and Bullseye were standing. Both were stock still and had placed themselves on either side of the hangar's door. "This look like anything either of you've ever seen?"

"Negative, General," Shooter replied, tossing off a sharp salute.

Bullseye simply shook his head.

"Well," Marissa said, "thanks anyway."

"It is unfamiliar to me as well, Marissa," a voice from behind her said. Marissa nearly jumped out of her skin.

"You have _got_ to stop sneaking up on me like that, Nightbird."

"I am sorry, Marissa. I am working on making my presence easier to detect."

_Apologizing for not working hard enough on not being sneaky. What a universe,_ Marissa thought. She waved off Nightbird's concerns. "It's all right. I was probably distracted anyway."

Her comm. link chirped and she answered it. "Fairborn here."

"This is Command Central, General. We just got a weird blip on the scanners. Some kind of strange power-source coming from where we found the space ship. Thought you should know."

"You did good, Central. I'll take a team out and investigate. Fairborn out."

"Team," of course, was a relative word, being that it consisted of Nightbird, Bullseye, and, of course, Marissa herself. She rode inside Bullseye, the blocky Autobot's tank-mode ideal for traveling over the rough Martian terrain. Nightbird kept pace alongside them, her new alternate form of a pod-like hovercar easily handling the ground by virtue of not actually being on it.

"We're nearing the location of the unusual readings, General," Bullseye reported, and, even though she was inside him, Marissa has to strain ever-so-slightly to hear him. How so large an Autobot with enough firepower to level a city block could have so soft a voice, she didn't know.

It became clear that "near" was actually "very near," for as they crested the next hill, a monstrous machine came into view. It was mostly the dull green of the flying saucer, but on this machine, several bits of silver, most notable at the joints, could be seen. It was like some terrible spider, eight giant, thick legs connected to a central pod, a central pod remarkable only for a glowing red port that might have been a porthole or sensor of some kind. The machine was still half-covered with dust, apparently having only recently extracted itself from the ground. It moved stiffly and jerkily, but steadily towards their position. As it moved, the central pod oriented its port in their direction and a bolt of crimson power leapt from it.

Reacting with the speed of a professional soldier, Bullseye transformed, a move that ejected Marissa from his passenger compartment (thankfully, she was wearing her exo-suit) and dropped her to the ground. He turned as he did so and took the blast in his back for his trouble. With a roar of pain, he dropped to one knee, most of the armor along his back blackened and singed, with some of his circuitry left bare. "Are you all right?" he asked, each word slow and laboriously drawn out.

Marissa nodded and wasted no more words on her own condition, instead activating her comm. unit. "Fairborn to base, Fairborn to base. We are under attack. Repeat, we are under attack and in need of back up."

""We're on it, General," came the reply. "Try to hold out. Suggest you retreat."

"Not going to happen, base. If we don't stop this thing here, we might not get a chance later."

Nightbird was already doing her best to try and stop it, climbing and swinging about the mechanism like it was a jungle gym. She'd cling to one leg, adhering via static electricity, and fire her optical lasers at the joints, or target the weapon-port with the dart launchers in her forearms. When that would prove to have no effect, she'd leap or flip onto another leg and repeat the process, never staying in one place long enough for the machine to try and shake her off.

Marissa did a quick mental rundown of the various weapons built into her exo-suit. While some of them might be strong enough to stun a Transformer, it was clear that the mechanoid was more powerful than that. Blast. She hated feeling so useless.

Bullseye got to his feet with great effort, the servos in his back protesting as he straightened. His shoulder cannon snapped into position and his other weapons—an automatic laser rifle and a missile launcher—snapped into reality from subspace. With an effort, he turned around, shouting for Nightbird to get out of the way, before he opened fire.

The second Nightbird pushed off from the mechanical beast, the air became filled with weaponry. Bursts of orange light from rapid-fire lasers, smoky streaks of flame from missiles, and great, glowing jets of plasma from his cannon lit the landscape. The mechanical thing staggered under the assault, but it took no damage. Instead, it turned its attention back to the Autobot. Its port began to glow as it readied another blast…

It was a blast that never came. A barrage of laser fire from behind Marissa distracted the thing, made it turn its attention away from Bullseye.

"Are you all right, General?" A voice, Shooter's, asked over the comm. "Hnn. Acid Pellets aren't having any effect."

Marissa did have to hand it to the outpost, when they called out the cavalry, they called out the cavalry. Shooter, Twincast, Bumper, and a full dozen heavily armed EDC commandos had all come riding to their rescue.

Unfortunately, not even the amount of fire power the Autobots could bring to bear—the EDC troopers were holding, letting the Autobots, with their superior firepower take the point-could do more than stagger the mechanism. It just kept coming and firing. The Autobots and troopers scattered, diving for cover, while Twincast brought his rifle to bear and flipped the switch on the side of the handle. When he next pulled the trigger, the air rippled as a high pitched wine cut through the air, causing Marissa to wince as though a drill was being pressed into her forehead.

On the other hand, the pain appeared to be worth it. The sonic blast was actually having an effect on the machine. It paused and seemed to look about in a confused fashion. Then it began to twitch its limbs and nearly fell over, its central pod bobbing erratically. Finally, after it tried to unleash another blast, it lost its ability to stand and came crashing to the ground with a heavy, metallic thump.

And then…it began to crack. Slowly, at first, like with a sound like thin ice with too much weight on it, then louder, like shattering glass, and finally, with a sound like a car slamming into a telephone pole, it completely fell apart, disintegrating into a pile of green shards. That it fell apart was unusual, but not completely out of the realm of possibility. What _was_ unusual was that it was completely empty. There were no gears, no circuits, no power source, just…outer shell.

"Well," Twincast said, "that's interesting."

"Unfortunately," Twincast said, sitting in radio mode on Shooter's dash, "this coincides with that I learned from my sonic-imaging on the saucer. That too, was hollow, without any interior structures."

"Any theories on what it means?"

"Several, General. There are many races which possess the ability to animate various materials through the use of psionic abilities and the like. The people of Samojan, for example, work nearly all their machinery by means of their vast mental powers. It is likely we're dealing with a similar situation here."

"It is interesting, though," Bumper's voice came over the comm. system, "this does bear some interesting similarities to several other worlds. Many ancient historical and even prehistorical accounts suggest a very similar "master" or alien race who visited these worlds early in their development, often speeding that along or leaving something behind. This even holds common to machine worlds. Many have suggested these beings were not aliens, but gods…"

"Unlikely," Twincast snapped. "There are no gods."

"I find that equally unlikely," Bumper replied. "Especially when you consider the vast number of unique races that fill this universe, nearly all of whom have some kind of creation myth. That these were arranged without any kind of plan is unthinkable. Surely, you can't mean to discount our own heritage. We owe our existence to a god, after all: Primus."

"Please," Twincast said, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, "that you do not buy into that nonsense. _We_ were _built_ by the Quintessons. _They_ built us just a little too well, as we gained sentience. That's it. Nothing mysterious, just natural machine evolution. We're creatures of science, not mystical mumbo-jumbo."

"Why you blasphemous!"

"Gentlemen!" Marissa interrupted. She'd never heard Bumper get that loud before, or that forceful. Nor had she ever heard Twincast sound so dismissive of another's ideas. It was like her daddy always said, never discuss politics, religion, or baseball with friends or co-workers, it could only lead to trouble. "I don't give a damn about what either of you believe, but if you both do not stow it and do your jobs properly, I will have Stepper recycle you, and place you on the wall in the den!"

"Erm… General?" Bumper asked.

"Yes?" she sighted.

"We don't have a den."

"Shooter?"

"Yes, General?"

"You have my permission to shoot Bumper when we get back to base."

"Marissa?"

Nightbird's voice interrupted Marissa's pacing near the entrance to the hangar where the saucer was being kept. Bumper and Twincast were continuing their examinations of the saucer, while Shooter stood careful watch with his blaster at the ready, just in case it came to life and started shooting at them.

"Are you attempting to wear down the floor? Because if you are, I can recommend several more effective methods than simple friction."

Marissa stifled a laugh. With Nightbird, you had to be careful. As a new being, nearly everything she said was one hundred percent serious. "No, Nightbird, I'm just frustrated. We've got a king-sized mystery on our hands, the potential for more of those things to be out there, Bumper and Twincast aren't speaking to each other, Bullseye had to go into stasis-lock because we don't have the facilities to repair him here, and, to top it off, the food in the base cafeteria tastes like it's been sitting out since the last time I was here."

"Oh." The ninja seemed to consider this for a moment, before speaking again. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I wish," Marissa said. "Unfortunately, I don't think it's a good idea to go looking for more of those things, just yet, anyway. Until Misters Science and Religion find something, we're stuck twiddling our thumbs."

Speaking of that, it was probably a good time to check in on those two. Not that she thought Shooter would let the two of them kill each other… unless they got on his nerves badly enough. God only knew how many times he'd threaten to take Pistachio out somewhere and shoot her for the same offense. Of course, threats such as that probably worked better on Autobots than they did on Junkions, but still… "You boys find anything yet?"

"Surprisingly, yes, General," Twincast said. "I wasn't looking for it before, because I didn't know it would be there, but I've detected a very low-level energy field holding the saucer together. It's similar to the sensor readings I took during the fight with the other mechanism, but much more subdued. We should we able to use this to see if there are any more of them out there."

"I don't know about this, General," Bumper said. He was rubbing the back of his head again, a sure sign of his nervousness. "I get the feeling we may have opened a Pandora's Box here. What if the other mechanism only activated because this one was uncovered? Looking for more sounds like asking for trouble. There hadn't been any trouble here until this was discovered…"

Twincast made a derisive noise. "So you're saying there's some things life-kind was not meant to know?"

"History shows us the danger in meddling in what we do not understand. Many empires and vast and wondrous civilizations have fallen because they unleashed something that they should not have. Earth, for example, nearly destroyed itself with the advent of nuclear power. Even we Cybertronians, in probing the possibility that Cybertron might contain the means to become a stellar dreadnaught, nearly destroyed our world. The Great Chasm is testament to that."

"There is no advancement without risk, Bumper."

"So you'd sacrifice us for a potentially pointless exploration of these things? They might be dangerous, or they might not. If we leave them alone, we won't have to worry about it."

Marissa sighed. While Bumper had a point, he was also somewhat blind to the facts. If a mining crew had uncovered one, they would likely uncover others. Until they were all found, no one was safe, and too much on Earth depended upon the mining operations here to simply stop. Granted they could find them—assuming that they located all of them—and put up metaphorical "Do Not Disturb" signs, but that was a gamble. Of course, Twincast's way was a gamble too. They'd beaten the first thing by sheer luck. If they others—assuming there were any others—were anywhere near as powerful, or, potentially, even more powerful, they could be in for real trouble. Even at their fastest, it would take reinforcements from Earth hours to get here, hours they might not have.

"I'm not happy about either option," she said diplomatically, hoping to hold off another fight, "but we have to do _something_. Let's see if there even _are_ more of those things, _then_ we'll see what we can do about it, all right?"

The two reluctantly muttered their agreement.

"Good," Marissa said. "Now wasn't that easy?"

It had turned out that there were two sites with similar energy frequencies to the two previous devices. Logic should have dictated that they check out each site as a group, but there seemed to be a certain manic energy infesting them now. One such device had lead to their coming to Mars and another had nearly killed one of their own. They wanted this solved and solved quickly. If there were beings being this, then they wanted them to pay.

However, if they were going to split up, they were going to play it smart. One fighter and one scientist would make up each group, with an EDC commando squad to back each up. Bumper and Nightbird would comprise one group, while Marissa, Shooter, and Twincast would make up the other.

As the teams assembled and prepped their equipment, an EDC officer—a captain, judging by his rank badges—approached her. "General Fairborn?" he asked.

"Yes, Captain…?"

"Morgan, General. Permission to speak freely?"

Marissa grimaced. She could already guess where this was going. She'd heard it before, from human and Transformer alike. "Granted, Captain."

"With all due respect, General, I believe you should remain here at base and coordinate our efforts. Having seen how dangerous these mechanisms can be, it would be unwise to expose yourself to that danger unnecessarily."

"Your advise is duly noted, Captain, andduly ignored."

"But General…"

"That will be all, Captain. Do I make myself clear?"

"…Yes, General."

It was the same argument she'd heard time and time again. Granted, she was almost seventy, but she was still in great shape for her age, thanks to clean living and daily exercise. And she'd be damned if she was going to just sit back while her friends risked their lives. She'd never been very good at ordering others into the fight while she stayed behind. If those she commanded were going to risk their lives, then so was she.

It probably _was_ going to get her killed needlessly one of these days, but until then, she'd walk straight into the line of fire before she stayed behind like some coward.

"It's… it's Stonehenge!" Marissa exclaimed as the site came into view. "That's just not possible! "

What she was seeing just wasn't possible. A series of standing stones, arranged in a circle, just like Stonehenge on Earth. While she'd been developing a more flexible sense of what was possible, having a structure appear on a lifeless planet when one had not previously existed had yet to enter into the list of things she was willing to believe.

"I'd say it was, General," Twincast said. "Though at this point, I've not rational explanation for it."

Shooter pulled to a stop alongside the pair of EDC land-rovers and allowed Marissa to exit, taking Twincast with her. The two Autobots quickly transformed and Twincast started towards the structure, but Shooter held up a hand to stop him. "Let me go first," he said, drawing his blaster, "and make sure it's safe…or as safe as things can be right now."

The blue and white Autobot moved with a combination of speed and stealth, carefully making his way over to the standing stones. As he approached the stones, his antenna began to move slightly, indicating that he was using his sensors. After a few moments, during which the EDC troopers had established a defensive perimeter, he waved Marissa and Twincast over.

Marissa tapped her communicator. "Team one to team two. Team one to team two, come in."

Bumper's voice came back over the comm. "This is team two, General. We've found something… interesting: an Egyptian-style pyramid."

"Interesting indeed, Bumper. We've found Stonehenge."

"Curiouser and curiouser," Bumper replied. "We're moving in to investigate. It doesn't look like there's any direct way to gain entrance. We might have to have Nightbird cut her way inside."

"Just keep us posted, Bumper. Fairborn out."

Twincast was now slightly bent over, a hand spread flat against one of the standing stones. "Solid," he said. "Or at least that's what my sonic-imaging is telling me. Given everything else we've dealt with so far, I wouldn't be surprised if they were hollow."

Marissa nodded her agreement, running a hand against the surface of the stone. For the briefest second, she felt a jolt, a small shock that made her jerk back.

"What? What is it?" Shooter demanded.

"It _shocked_ me!" Marissa quickly regained her composure before speaking again. "It didn't have that effect on you, Twincast?"

"No, General."

"Strange," she replied. Hesitantly, she touched it again. This time, despite the insulation of the glove of her exo-suit, she felt, not a shock, but a sudden warmth that the suit's sensors failed to register. When she pulled her hand away again, strange symbols, little more than squiggles to her eye, appeared not just on the stone she had touched, but on all of them.

"Stranger still," Twincast said. He brought up a hand with which to touch the stone himself, but as his hand neared, a bolt of energy leapt from the stone, blackening his hand and causing him to grunt in pain. "All right, we won't be doing that."

Shooter put a restraining arm in front of Twincast. "I recommend we get out of the circle until we can bring in better scanning equipment."

Marissa nodded and tapped her helmet. "The land-rovers' scanners aren't doing much good at all. They're not saying anything's here." She directed her attention to the EDC troops. "All right boys, pull back."

She started walking out of the circle, but just before her foot cleared it, a shimmering shield of blue energy sprang up between the stones. Gingerly, she touched it and found that it gave under her touch, like a gel, but did not break or tear.

"General," Captain Morgan said via the comm., "are you all right?"

"I'm not hurt, if that's what you mean, Captain."

"Your orders?"

"Just stay at the ready for now… I don't want to risk firepower at this stage."

"Yes, General."

Shooter scowled as he regarded the barrier. "My sensors don't read the barrier. That's impossible. If it's there, it should have some kind of reading."

"It doesn't show up on a sonic-imaging scan either," Twincast said, and, despite the electronic distortion inherent in his voice, Marissa thought she could hear some worry creeping into it. If he was anything like any of the scientists she'd known, the fact that something was quickly becoming beyond his understanding was likely driving him nuts.

A thought occurred to her. If they'd somehow managed to become captured (for lack of a better word) then what had happened to Bumper and Nightbird? Were they similarly imprisoned?

"Bumper, Nightbird, team two—anyone—come in."

"This is Lieutenant Atkins, General."

"Where're Bumper and Nightbird, Lieutenant?"

"Unknown, General. They entered the pyramid nearly ten minutes ago and we just lost radio contact. We've been unable to regain it. We were just about to contact you, before heading in after them."

"Belay tha,t Lieutenant. You might be heading into a trap."

"Your orders then, General?"

"Keep your guard up for any kind of trouble and maintain radio contact with Captain Morgan."

"Aye, General."

Marissa terminated the connection and looked between the two Autobots on the inside with her, and the EDC officers who were on the outside. Both were carefully probing the field, trying to find any weaknesses or holes in it.

"I'm going to try a sonic blast," Twincast said finally. "It worked against the mechanism, if we're dealing with things of similar origin, it will likely work well again."

"If you would get behind me, General," Shooter said, placing himself between Marissa and Twincast.

Twincast brought his rifle up and again thumbed the switch on the side. When he squeezed the trigger, the air in front of the barrel grew distorted under the waves of pure sound. The wave of sound slammed into the gel-like barrier, causing it to shimmer and buckle, its middle nearly being pushed so far outward as to stretch what one would think were the barrier's limits.

And Twincast kept firing, the high-pitched whine usually associated with his weapon fading as he switched to sonic frequencies higher than humans could hear. Shooter, on the other hand, it seemed, could hear, for he began to wince and held a hand to the side of his head, his antenna twitching. Finally, Twincast ceased firing and brought his weapon down. The barrier, still stretched, relaxed and sprang back…

And Marissa felt the ground beneath her crumble away.

Marissa let out a yelp of surprise as she began to fall, but quickly felt large metal hands grasp her. "Thanks, Shooter."

"Not a problem, General. My sensors say it's a long way down; you wouldn't survive the fall. Though frankly, I'm not certain I will either."

"You're a real barrel of laughs, Shooter, you know that?"

Still, it _was_ a long way down and they were still falling. Even with the magnification on her exo-suit set at maximum, she couldn't see the bottom. For a moment, Marissa briefly entertained the notion that they were going to fall forever, that the tunnel did not, in fact, have an end. At least they didn't have to worry about the lack of light. Her exo-suit's helmet had automatically shifted to thermal imaging, and she knew the Autobots would have done likewise. "Suggestions on how we stop, people?"

"I am not certain I can stop us, but I believe I can slow us down," Twincast said. "If I can produce a sonic wave of the right frequency and density, we should be able to ride it down more slowly than our present rate of acceleration."

With that Twincast retracted his hands, replacing them with a pair of parabolic dishes; the lights on his chest flashed for a moment, and then Marissa could hear a dull, throbbing hum that made her ears ring. As usual with Twincast's sonic effects the air through which the sound was traveling became distorted. And then they began to slow. To Marissa it felt a little like an uncomfortable trampoline, as they bounced slightly on the wave. But their fall was definitely slower. "All right," she deadpanned, for humor was the only way to stay sane in moments of crisis, "now we're slowly falling to our doom. Much better."

As it was, Shooter shifted Marissa to one hand and brought his rifle up with the other. When he thumbed a button on the side, a small cylinder appeared at the end of the barrel with a flash of subspace energy. With a pull of the trigger, he fired and the cylinder opened into a miniature harpoon, trailing a line behind it. The harpoon sank into the rock and, once the line had played itself out, Shooter's fall came to a stop with a jerk, a grimace on his face; Marissa could practically hear the gears and servos in his arm strain.

Twincast caught on quickly, transforming to his much smaller radio mode, which Marissa caught. "Why didn't you do that _earlier?_" she demanded.

"I _would_ have torn my arm out of the socket," Shooter said. "I had to wait until we'd slowed down enough first."

"And you couldn't have told me this plan earlier?"

"I knew what we were doing the second we started falling, General. It seemed unnecessary to burden you with the details."

The rest of the trip down was uneventful, almost relaxing, even, as Shooter rappelled down the shaft. Eventually, they were able to see bottom, and Shooter disconnected his line, landing with a slight thump.

They were in a chamber, but, even with her suit's sensors attuned to it, it was difficult to make out any details. This was all changed when lights, seemingly from nowhere, came on, filling the chamber with illumination. It took Marissa a moment to recover from the sudden light, but when she did, she could not help but let out a scream.

Bumper and Nightbird hung high against the walls, looking as though the rock has simply grown around their wrists, waists, and ankles. Both appeared to be in stasis-lock, with their exterior looking as though it has been exposed to intense heat. Also scatter about the rocky chamber, likewise restrained and burnt, were the space-suits of the dozen EDC commandos who had gone with the pair.

"Oh my God…" Marissa gasped, as she examined the nearest and lowest of the suits. Though burnt, the name-badge was still clearly visible: Lieutenant Atkins. Then she forced herself to look behind the suit's faceplate and confirmed her fear. Like every suit in the chamber, it was filled by a charred skeleton, its black, empty eye sockets seeming to stare at her accusatorily.

"It's not your fault, General," Shooter said, seeming to sense the direction her thoughts were taking. "You had no way of knowing this was going to happen."

"Blast..." Marissa muttered. "It's all so damn senseless."

"We can mourn later," Twincast said, though not heartlessly. "Let's see if Bumper and Nightbird are still alive, then work on getting out of here."

Working quickly, they began to get their friends down. Shooter fired up his line, and using Twincast's rifle, was able to break apart the rock holding Bumper. Catching the yellow Minibot as he fell, he brought him back down and laid him on the ground, then did the same for Nightbird. Marissa would have thought they were done for, except… they were only burnt. There was no sign of any damage to their interiors, no sign that, other than surface damage, they were actually hurt at all. It made her thing of the dead EDC commandos—their suits had been burnt too, but were still in decent enough condition, while the people in the suits, organics, had been burnt to death…

Twincast bent down and opened up a compartment in Bumper's chest. Numerous lights were still running and blinking green and a quick check of Nightbird turned up more of the same. "They're both alive…and fully functional, from the looks of it. It seems as if only their exo-structures were damaged. A little power infusion should get them back on-line."

With that, the tip of his left index finger snapped back, revealing a small spike with sparks dancing on its surface. He plugged the spike into a port in each of their chests, and seconds later, light returned to their optics. "What…" Bumper started to say, noticing his own state of scorchedness and the burnt EDC suits. "What happened?"

"We were going to ask you the same question," Marissa replied.

"I am… I am not certain I remember, properly, General. We were able to trigger an entrance to the pyramid, but were unable to get very far inside before coming to an impassable wall. When we returned, a force shield of some kind had sprung up in the entranceway. The EDC officers tried directing some of their firepower on it…and that's the last thing I can recall, before a wave of energy rushed up from somewhere below."

"Bumper's account rings true," Nightbird added. "My own memories are the same. There was nothing to suggest that kind of energy reaction to the firepower they had…"

Well, then at least Marissa had done some good. She'd told the troopers that had come with her team not to fire. A dozen lives were lost, but another dozen were saved. Perhaps that would let her sleep at night.

She just sighed. "What's the point of all this? Ancient craft and mechanoids, Earth-like structures, all this destruction and death… It's like someone's playing a game with us."

"I hate to bring it up, but I may have to reiterate my earlier hypothesis. Several mythologies suggest gods, or," Bumper stopped to give Twincast a wary glance, "beings with what we might call 'god-like power' often plagued the inhabitants of a planet with various and often nonsensical tests."

"So could some alien out for a joyride," Twincast countered. He made a noise of irritation, a static-pop that made Marissa wince. "Either way, we have to do _something_. We cannot allow this to continue."

"But how?" Nightbird asked. "It's not as if we can just ask them to please show themselves."

It was at that point that the air began to shimmer with blue again, resolving itself into a trio of beings. Each was like some bizarre combination of human and Transformer, clearly mechanical in some respects, yet also possessing certain characteristics—one seemed more to be an Amazonian female wearing Transformer-styled armor—that also marked them as organics.

"Coincidence," Twincast muttered. "Sheer coincidence."

The three beings were glowing the same ghostly blue color as the light that had heralded their arrival, and they looked around as if not quite accustomed to perceiving things in the same manner as ordinary beings. Though each seemed to act independently of the others, careful observation showed that they were actually moving in a coordinated, clockwork-like fashion, like a well-planned and well-orchestrated dance. Finally, all six eyes fell on Marissa and the Autobots.

When one spoke, it was as though not only the other two, but also several other _million_ beings were speaking, and not speaking aloud, but rather, in her mind, and in addition to English, several languages she understood bits and pieces of, and many more that she did not.

Eventually, the babble stopped and there was only one voice, in English, though it still spoke in her mind. _"Have we reduced ourselves enough that your small frame of reference can comprehend us?"_ the voice asked.

Great. Potentially god-like aliens with ego. That was _just_ what they needed. "Yes," Marissa said, "we can understand you. But who _are_ you? Did you put those devices here? Did you capture our friends?" _And kill those soliders?_

"_Ah, yes, you _are_ an inquisitive species. We do not have a name you could comprehend or pronounce, but you may call us the Beings. And yes, those devices were of our doing. As for the mechanoids, we did capture them, with the hopes of removing them from the playing field. The others died because they chose violence and thus failed the test."_

"And just who the slag do you think you are to test us?" Twincast demanded, raising his rifle.

"_We are gods. What we chose to do is no one's business but our own."_

"You," Twincast snarled, "are not gods!" He fired his rifle, sending bursts of lasers flying through the air. The beams passed through the Beings without so much as causing their image to waver. One brought a hand up and unleashed a bolt of energy. The blast struck Twincast square in the chest and sent him hurtling backwards, slamming into the rock hard enough to leave a vaguely Twincast-shaped outline.

Instantly, Shooter, Nightbird, and Bumper dropped into fighting positions.

"_Ah, Transformers. Violence is ever the way of your race. Your Creator may have been the Greatest of the Light Gods, but he was a poor creator. He would weep were he to look upon you now."_

"You…you knew _Primus_?" Bumper asked, a combination of fear, disbelief, and awe in his voice.

"Grgghhhg…. Don't believe them," Twincast said, struggling to rise to one knee. "They're powerful… but they're no gods. If there was a Primus, he wouldn't spare them a passing glance."

The most mechanical looking of the Beings raised a hand again and energy once more began to gather as he prepared to fire a blast.

"_Stop_!" Marissa shrieked. "Don't hurt him anymore! If you're _really_ gods, prove it! Show you're above such petty acts!"

"_You do your species credit, human. And your wisdom is great; we need not partake of violence. If only all of your race were so advanced, but no. Your people, like the Transformers, still see violence as the first answer to problems, still prefer to waste time waging war, instead of turning towards advancement and mutual benefit. We had hoped the discovery of our artifacts would signal that you had reached the next stage in your development, but alas, it seems to have been more blind luck than anything. You are not set ready to join the other races of the galaxy, not yet ready to take the first step along the path to unlocking your true potential."_

One of the other beings, the most human looking of the three, regarded Bumper and Nightbird with an appreciative gaze. "_These two, are equally a credit to their kind. They are ready for battle, but are open to peace."_

"But what…what sort of test can—what can you possibly determine by hiding strange devices on a dead world, like some kind of obscure game?" Bumper asked, puzzled and judging by the slightest shift in the way his optics were glowing, on the verge of some kind of panic attack.

"_If you must ask, then you are not yet ready to know."_

Nightbird and Shooter looked uncomfortable, both tense, ready to spring into action, but without anything they could actually fight, also probably feeling totally useless. Marissa took the opportunity to check Twincast.

"I don't know what these things are," she said, whispering, though she got the feeling it was an exercise in futility—if the Beings were as god-like as they claimed, then it was likely they could hear them. "But I cannot shake the feeling that they're dangerous. Is there _anything_ you can think of that might be able to stop them or slow them down or bring them closer to our level?"

Twincast started to shake his head, but then stopped. "Maybe," he said finally. "It's a risk, but the first device we found, the saucer…"

"Yes?"

"What if it wasn't a starship at all? They talk about how finding it was supposed to lead to advancement… Advancement to their level, perhaps? That would imply sharing a portion of their power, of whatever gives them their abilities… What if it was some kind of battery or power source?"

"You think destroying it might stop them?"

"I don't know, I can only guess. I can contact the outpost, but if we have EDC officers fire upon it…"

Then they'd probably be killed. Violence seemed to be regarded as a mark for death with the Beings. Granted, the Autobots hadn't been killed for fighting the Beings' machines, but they weren't the ones being tested… "What about Bullseye?"

The smallest smile crept across Twincast's features. "Good thought, General. He was in stasis lock… but I may be able to get him back on-line…"

"Do it. We'll keep the Beings distracted."

"So why, then, do you test other species?" Bumper asked the Beings.

"_To see if they are ready."_

"Ready for what? You mentioned the next stage of development, but evolution does not work in that fashion."

"_It is not a concept your limited mind could understand. Suffice to say, _we_ recognize it for what it is."_

"But it _is_ humans you're testing, right?" Marissa asked. "What's so special about us? Compared to the Transformers or any number of other species, we're hardly anything at all."

"_Of all the races in the universe, Marissa Fairborn, yours holds the greatest of potentials to become beings almost such as we. Spawned from a source of life beyond your understanding, for the purpose of, as you develop, helping other races to reach their full potential, as one of you once did for the Transformers…"_

Vector Sigma. The Beings were talking about Vector Sigma, just as Convoy had. The Vector Guard hadn't tried to harm her, when it had tried to slay Furmanata and the Autobots not created directly from Vector Sigma. Convoy had relayed the thoughts of Optimus Prime, that humans were a part of Vector Sigma somehow. She hadn't believed it then, but now…

"You killed innocents. That has to be accounted for. If you were really superior beings…"

"_Ah ah ah. You seek to distract us, make us angry and unfocused. But we see what you are going and we will not allow it to continue. Though we dislike ending life, in order to preserve the test, some sacrifices must be made."_

Each of the Beings raised both hands, each crackling with energy. Shooter, Bumper, and Nightbird quickly took up positions in front of Marissa, adopting defensive stances.

"We will not allow you to harm Marissa," Nightbird said, firmly. She had both of her energy-swords out and her optics glowed yellow as she charged her optic lasers.

"Recommend you run, General," Shooter said.

"Go, Marissa. Send for reinforcements. We'll…we'll hold them as long as we can," Bumper said, his voice, for once, free from nervousness.

Even as Marissa started to turn, the Beings attempted to unleash the energy they had gathered. The bolts streaked from their hands, crossed a fair amount of the distance to the Autobots, then sputtered and faded. The Beings, as one, looked down at their hands in confusion. Their glow seemed somehow dimmer.

"_What has happened?" _one asked, its voice retaining only some of the strange quality of before. Further, it was clear it was speaking of its own initiative and not whatever strange group-mind the Beings had had before.

"_We have been… damaged?"_ the female one said.

"_Our power… someone has tampered with our power!"_ the third roared.

"_We can still survive…and eliminate those who would stand in our way,"_ the first said.

"_Indeed," _echoed the other two.

Each Being held out a hand and grasped the hand of the others. Their glow slowly began to increase, growing so bright as to make them difficult to see. Their shapes began to distort, flowing together, until the glow had subsided and they were revealed as having merged into a single, ungainly, unsymmetrical Being, a harsh fusion of organics and mechanical bits.

A small, self-satisfied smile worked its way across the combined Being's face. _"There now,"_ it said. _"Where were we? Ah, yes. We were going to destroy you."_

The Autobots and Marissa scatted, avoiding the first volley of energy the Being unleashed. Bumper was the first to react, firing his decelerator pistol. The beam struck the Being and yellowish energy danced over its body and, as it began to gather the energy for another bolt, it did indeed seem to be moving somewhat slower.

Shooter and Nightbird quickly turned their weapons, his handgun and her optic lasers, on the Being; the assault seemed to only to annoy the Being, though perhaps slightly slowed by the assault and Bumper's initial blast, it continued gathering energy and loosed another blast, forcing them to scatter once more.

The blast also effectively cut off Marissa's attempt at escape, bringing tons of rock down upon the passageway by which they'd entered. With any other route being fairly obviously through the Being, they were going to have to either win this fight… or die.

It was then that Twincast, limping from his injuries, stepped into the battlefield, apparently unarmed. "You are not gods!" he roared. "You have _no right_ to toy with us so! You are sick, twisted killers, and this _will not stand!_"

The blue Autobot reached across his body with his right arm, pressing a button on the left side of his chest. Instantly, the Being began to scream in pain and dropped to its knees. "Ultra-high frequencies!" Twincast roared. "I don't know why, but I _can_ hurt you!"

Marissa felt a tremor race through her. As much as she'd like to see these murderers punished, this was totally unlike Twincast. He was _never_ this angry, and especially never this _bloodthirsty._

"Beings such as you, claiming to be something you _cannot_ be, interfering in the lives of others, all for the sake of some horrible "test" or your own twisted amusement…" Twincast continued ranting, adjusting one of his dials to turn up the power. The Being had totally collapsed now, laying out on the cave floor, not even screaming, just curling into a fetal position.

It was too much. Even despicable things such as the Beings did not deserve such torment. The sound—beyond Marissa's ability to perceive, was clearing having an effect on the others as well. Bumper, Nightbird and Shooter were all clutching their heads, propping themselves up against the rock wall. She had to do something, had to put a stop to it, before Twincast got them all killed or worse… "Twincast! Stop! Stop it! Can't you see you're killing them?"

"My brain is a highly sophisticated computer, General. I _always_ know exactly what I'm doing."

"Then you know you're killing the others!"

"What?" Twincast tapped one of his chest buttons, presumably shutting off the sound. He looked around, seeming confused. "I… I didn't mean to…"

"It's er, all right." Bumper said. "Nothing a ah, complete system replacement and four weeks sick leave won't fix."

"I almost… I almost… I almost killed everyone…" Twincast muttered. Transformers, Marissa knew, didn't have adrenaline, but she knew they could get into the same kind of battle-madness as other beings—once one started fighting, it was sometimes hard to stop.

"_But you did not. Both you and the human proved you could be rational, that you did not have to use violence."_ The Beings tone was patronizing, despite how close to death they'd apparently come. …Or had they? Had everything simply been part of their damned test?

The Being had gotten up off its feet, apparently no worse for wear, and had once more split into three. _"In showing mercy, even to ones who have wronged you, you prove yourselves to be superior beings. Perhaps you _are_ ready for the next stage of your development. For this… you deserve a reward, yes…"_

"I've so many questions," Bumper said. "I wouldn't know where to begin." He looked at Marissa, hesitantly. "But I think I speak for all of us, when I say that the less we have to do with you the better."

"Indeed," Marissa added. "All we ask is that you take us back to the surface and trouble the people of this world, Earth, and Cybertron no more."

"_We shall do the first, but we cannot promise the second. But let us just say that…you shall not hear from us for some time yet. Both your races still have much growing to do. Fare thee well, Marissa Fairborn of Earth, Twincast, Bumper, and Shooter of Cybertron, and Nightbird of Earth and Quintessa_._"_

The world around them faded into a blue-white glow and a voice, the voice of the Beings, filtered through her mind…

"_You, especially, Marissa Fairborn, are an extraordinary being… Such deserves a greater reward…"_

The light faded and they reappeared on the surface. And Marissa felt…better. Better than she had in years. Better than she had in many, many years, even with how she'd kept herself fit.

The other Autobots were doing a quick scan of their immediate area; there were no signs of any alien artifacts or any of the EDC. They were still on Mars, but in one of the uninhabited and unmined regions. Finally, Bumper's gaze fell on Marissa and his goggle-like optics seemed to widen in surprise.

"Erm… General?" he asked, nervously. "I don't mean to ah, make a nuisance of myself, but the erm, teleportation seems to have altered your hair color."

"What?"

"It has changed from a silver-color to a shade of brown."

"What are you talking about?"

"He's right, Marissa," Nightbird said. "Here. Let me show you." She bent down and retracted one of her hands, replacing it with a silvery buzzsaw. It was just silvery enough that Marissa could see her reflection in it.

She looked twenty-years old, if she was a day.

"_Such deserves a greater reward…"_


End file.
